Pascal's Pensees Part 72

[6] P. 5, l. 22. _The doctor._--Also a traditional character in Italian comedy.

[7] P. 5, l. 24. _Cleobuline._--Princess, and afterwards Queen of Corinth, figures in the romance of Mademoiselle de Scudery, ent.i.tled _Artamene ou le Grand Cyrus_. She is enamoured of one of her subjects, Myrinthe. But she "loved him without thinking of love; and remained so long in that error, that this affection was no longer in a state to be overcome, when she became aware of it." The character is supposed to have been drawn from Christina of Sweden.

[8] P. 6, l. 21. _Rivers are_, etc.--Apparently suggested by a chapter in Rabelais: _How we descended in the isle of Odes, in which the roads walk_.

[9] P. 6, l. 30. _Salomon de Tultie._--A pseudonym adopted by Pascal as the author of the _Provincial Letters_.

[10] P. 7, l. 7. _Abstine et sustine._--A maxim of the Stoics.

[11] P. 7, l. 8. _Follow nature._--The maxim in which the Stoics summed up their positive ethical teaching.

[12] P. 7, l. 9. _As Plato._--Compare Montaigne, _Essais_, iii, 9.

[13] P. 9, l. 29. _We call this jargon poetical beauty._--According to M. Havet, Pascal refers here to Malherbe and his school.

[14] P. 10, l. 23. _Ne quid nimis._--Nothing in excess, a celebrated maxim in ancient Greek philosophy.

[15] P. 11, l. 26. _That epigram about two one-eyed people._--M. Havet points out that this is not Martial's, but is to be found in _Epigrammatum Delectus_, published by Port-Royal in 1659.

_Lumine aeon dextro, capta est Leonilla sinistro, Et potis est forma vincere uterque deos.

Blande puer, lumen quod habes concede parenti, Sic tu caecus Amor, sic erit ilia Venus._

[16] P. 11, l. 29. _Ambitiosa recidet ornamenta._--Horace, _De Arte Poetica_, 447.

[17] P. 13, l. 2. _Cartesian._--One who follows the philosophy of Descartes (1596-1650), "the father of modern philosophy."

[18] P. 13, l. 8. _Le Maitre._--A famous French advocate in Pascal's time. His _Plaidoyers el Harangues_ appeared in 1657. _Plaidoyer VI_ is ent.i.tled _Pour un fils mis en religion par force_, and on the first page occurs the word _repandre_: "_Dieu qui repand des aveuglements et des tenebres sur les pa.s.sions illegitimes._"

Pascal's reference is probably to this pa.s.sage.

[19] P. 13, l. 12. _The Cardinal._--Mazarin. He was one of those statesmen who do not like condolences.

[20] P. 14, l. 12. _Saint Thomas._--Thomas Aquinas (1223-74), one of the greatest scholastic philosophers.

[21] P. 14, l. 16. _Charron._--A friend of Montaigne. His _Traite de la Sagesse_ (1601), which is not a large book, contains 117 chapters, each of which is subdivided.

[22] P. 14, l. 17. _Of the confusion of Montaigne._--The Essays of Montaigne follow each other without any kind of order.

[23] P. 14, l. 27. _Mademoiselle de Gournay._--The adopted daughter of Montaigne. She published in 1595 an edition of his _Essais_, and, in a Preface (added later), she defends him on this point.

[24] P. 15, l. 1. _People without eyes._--Montaigne, _Essais_, ii, 12.

[25] P. 15, l. 1. _Squaring the circle._--Ibid., ii, 14.

[26] P. 15, l. 1. _A greater world._--Ibid., ii, 12.

[27] P. 15, l. 2. _On suicide and on death._--Ibid., ii, 3.

[28] P. 15, l. 3. _Without fear and without repentance._--Ibid., iii., 2.

[29] P. 15, l. 7. (730, 231).--These two references of Pascal are to the edition of the _Essais_ of Montaigne, published in 1636.

[30] P. 16, l. 32. _The centre which is everywhere, and the circ.u.mference nowhere._--M. Havet traces this saying to Empedocles. Pascal must have read it in Mlle de Gournay's preface to her edition of Montaigne's _Essais_.

[31] P. 18, l. 33. _I will speak of the whole._--This saying of Democritus is quoted by Montaigne, _Essais_, ii, 12.

[32] P. 18, l. 37. _Principles of Philosophy._--The t.i.tle of one of Descartes's philosophical writings, published in 1644. See note on p. 13, l. 8 above.

[33] P. 18, l. 39. _De omni scibili._--The t.i.tle under which Pico della Mirandola announced nine hundred propositions which he proposed to uphold publicly at Rome in 1486.

[34] P. 19, l. 26. _Beneficia eo usque laeta sunt._--Tacitus, _Ann._, lib. iv, c. xviii. Compare Montaigne, _Essais_, iii, 8.

[35] P. 21, l. 35. _Modus quo_, etc.--St. Augustine, _De Civ. Dei_, xxi, 10. Montaigne, _Essais_, ii, 12.

[36] P. 22, l. 8. _Felix qui_, etc.--Virgil, _Georgics_, ii, 489, quoted by Montaigne, _Essais_, iii, 10.

[37] P. 22, l. 10. _Nihil admirari_, etc.--Horace, _Epistles_, I. vi. 1.

Montaigne, _Essais_, ii, 10.

[38] P. 22, l. 19. 394.--A reference to Montaigne, _Essais_, ii, 12.

[39] P. 22, l. 20. 395.--Ibid.

[40] P. 22, l. 22. 399.--Ibid.

[41] P. 22, l. 28. _Harum sententiarum._--Cicero, _Tusc._, i, 11, Montaigne, _Essais_, ii, 12.

[42] P. 22, l. 39. _Felix qui_, etc.--See above, notes on p. 22, l. 8 and l. 10.

[43] P. 22, l. 40. 280 _kinds of sovereign good in Montaigne._--_Essais_, ii, 12.

[44] P. 23, l. 1. _Part I_, 1, 2, _c_. 1, _section_ 4.--This reference is to Pascal's _Traite du vide_.

[45] P. 23, l. 25. _How comes it_, etc.--Montaigne, _Essais_, iii, 8.

[46] P. 23, l. 29. See Epictetus, _Diss._, iv, 6. He was a great Roman Stoic in the time of Domitian.

[47] P. 24, l. 9. _It is natural_, etc.--Compare Montaigne, _Essais_, i, 4.

[48] P. 24, l. 12. _Imagination._--This fragment is suggestive of Montaigne. See _Essais_, iii, 8.

[49] P. 25, l. 16. _If the greatest philosopher_, etc. See Raymond Sebond's _Apologie_, from which Pascal has derived his ill.u.s.trations.

[50] P. 26, l. 1. _Furry cats._--Montaigne, _Essais_, ii, 8.

[51] P. 26, l. 31. _Della opinione_, etc.--No work is known under this name. It may refer to a treatise by Carlo Flori, which bears a t.i.tle like this. But its date (1690) is after Pascal's death (1662), though there may have been earlier editions.

[52] P. 27, l. 12. _Source of error in diseases._--Montaigne, _Essais_, ii, 12.

[53] P. 27, l. 27. _They rival each other_, etc.--Ibid.